When Mirai woke back up at nine am, she found herself being shaken awake by a very, very, very excited sentret.

"MAKOU GET OUT OF MY ROOM."

"But Mirai!" Makou whined. "There's something cool you really have to see! I promise absolutely nothing is going to go wrong!"

Taylor rolled his eyes from his spot on the wall. "Foreshadowing much?"

Mirai groaned. "Fine. This better be worth my time."

"It's nine am," Taylor said. "Isn't that when you usually wake up?"

"I found out what my name is and I spent, like, half the night thinking about how stupid it sounds," the axew said before shoving the two outside. "I'm gonna change. Stay out!"

After Mirai had slipped on a green-grey jacket, a black tank top and tan shorts, the trio went over to the hill on Post Town. It was a relatively tall hill, with a field and flowers and everything, overlooking craggy mountains and another city far to the north, though it was barely visible most of the time.

Mirai had tied her hair into a ponytail while Makou and Taylor went ahead, bickering about whether they should have done this or that the day before or some other thing Mirai wasn't exactly interested in. Once they had all reached the hill, Mirai was greeted with an assortment of the pokemon townsfolk, all awing at the sight of…

… a bunch of mountains. Floating high in the sky.

She let out a 'Arceusdamn what is that monstrosity' before Shido clamped his hand over her mouth.

"It's the Great Glacier, Mirai!" the snivy exclaimed excitedly, nearly jumping up and down from giddiness. "It's only a mirage, though. But it's still pretty cool, right?"

"It just scares me," the axew said. "I mean, it's pretty much a lot of mountains floating in the sky. That's kind of unnatural?"

"It's the Great Glacier," Shido repeated, drawing out the last two words for emphasis. "It's this huge mountain where it's impossible to map, because the crevasses change randomly every day. There are lots of rumors as to what the Glacier might have – gold, jewelries, that sorta thing – but nobody's ever actually gone to and from the Great Glacier's depths. Flying doesn't work either; the winds push us back, and you know how strong winds can get, especially around blizzards."

Mirai winced. "Let's not talk about that."

"Gotcha." Shido turned to look back at the mirage. "You see? I'd want to go there, but we both have type disadvantages to ice-types… eh…" He deflated slightly, but perked back up quickly. "But I'd still want to go!"

"Mm, I wouldn't care much," the axew said, waving her hand in the air offhandedly. "I'd go if I have to, but I don't think I'd really put much effort…"

Shido nodded. "Point taken. I wouldn't peg you for the type to put that much effort in anything." He smirked.

The snivy was rewarded with a karate chop to the head, disregarding height differences entirely. He yelped and hid behind Satsuki, who already had Ryuuko beside her. The zorua glared at Shido murderously while the suicune simply smiled, looking amused.

"I have visited the Great Glacier before," Satsuki mused. "Though, I really only reached the fourth floor before I escaped. The Wild Pokemon had ambushed me and I know my limits…" She flinched. "… Anyway I do not particularly want to revisit it. Perhaps another day."

Ryuuko nodded absentmindedly, staring wistfully at Satsuki's hand, inches away from her own. Following her gaze, the suicune smiled and patted the zorua's head, surprising her enough to jolt, redden, then inevitably hide her flushed face behind her hands.

The mirage eventually started to flicker and fade away, resulting to the townsfolk returning to their business. The crowd dispersed and Mirai decided to get Makou some actual clothes, dragging the sentret with her to the department store, Taylor reluctantly following. Ryuuko retreated to Paradise to take a look on how the land preparation was going while Satsuki and Shido went over to arrange some stuff in Paradise.

And, of course, Makou got incredibly sidetracked and ended up in a different place entirely, dragging Mirai and Taylor with her. There was a kicking from the axew and an exasperated sigh from the rufflet.

"Great. We're lost. In a tiny-ass town," Mirai grumbled. "This isn't how I wanted my day to go. I manage to wake up at a horrifying hour to see some weird mirage and then I get lost. IN A TINY-ASS TOWN."

Several pokemon steered clear from the axew after her declaration. Makou waved hi to all of them.

Eventually, they wound up in the crossroads, in between Post Town and Paradise. Mirai was about to turn on her heel and walk back to where she was sure the department store would be, but she felt… a barrier.

A barrier?

She turned back to look expectantly at Makou and Taylor, thinking this might have been another practical joke of theirs, but they were looking just as confused, examining the greenish transparent barrier that limited their movement. Just then, Makou's eyes widened, and she said, "Above–"

"Found you!"

And then a crash, a shattering sound, and a long string of expletives from the axew.

Once the smoke and dust had cleared, the barrier had gone and in its place were three pokemon – a ten-year-old-like pinkette with a one-piece flowery dress, a gray-haired catgirl in scantily-dressed clothing, and a hunchbacked boy clad in blue and purple.

The pinkette pointed proudly at Mirai, grinning victoriously as if she had already won… whatever it is that needed winning. "Hah! Finally! After that busted hostage situation, we finally caught you! 'Bout time!"

"Uh… what?" Mirai raised an eyebrow, clearly unimpressed. "So… how exactly am I supposed to be reacting?"

The pinkette growled, clenching her fists and popping a vein. "Look, I spent weeks searching for your sorry little butt, so you better come quickly or we're going to have to use force. I'm not the Leader of Team Nightmare for no reason!"

"Team Nightmare?!" Makou exclaimed. "So it is you, Yume! And… still a munna, I see. Haven't found your Moon Stone since you were nine, weren't you? And Neko!" she turned her attention to the catgirl, who narrowed her yellow eyes into slits. "Well, you're definitely grown up. Still bet I could kick your fat ass, though. And…" she stared blankly at the hunchback. "… I don't know you. Are you the toxicroak?"

"It's the rat!" the purugly, Neko, snapped. "I remember you! You followed that zorua everywhere like some desperate fangirl looking for attention from her idol! Hmph, starly of the same feather flock together though, I see. That zorua did run after the Queen like her life depended on it every day."

The munna, Yume, on the other hand, looked aghast. "You dare mock me, you stupid brown piece of tauros crap?! I'm stronger than all of you combined, munna or musharna!"

The toxicroak, Doku, simply grumbled something that vaguely sounded like 'of course the one who does all the actual work gets underappreciated' and shifted into a fighting stance. "Whatever. Fine, what about I say these two are here to kick you guys' sorry asses?"

"And you? Are you the slacker?" Taylor taunted.

Doku smirked. "The complete opposite."

The battle was over before it had even begun. Doku had sent a shower of poison powders towards the three pokemon, effectively causing them to breathe in the toxic fumes and weaken greatly. Yume took the chance and fired several beams of psychic energy towards Mirai and Taylor, while Neko had leapt upon Makou and dug her nails deep into the sentret's skin.

Taylor managed to hold on a bit longer, but Mirai had fainted almost instantly. Taylor silently cursed under his breath for dragging her out of the bed since she obviously didn't fight well when still sleepy, and attempted to take into the air, his wings flapping weakly. Yume clicked her tongue, waving a pointer finger sideways in an 'uh-uh-uh' motion, and the rufflet felt a painfully strong gravitational force push him back down to the rough ground, preventing any means of flight whatsoever.

Makou managed to punch Neko square in the face, but the purugly didn't allow a bleeding nose to keep her from Slashing the sentret's face as well. Makou screeched, kicking the catgirl off of her and clutching the three deep slash marks etched on her face. Blood practically spurted out of the wounds and Makou scampered away from Neko, the sentret clambering up a tree with surprising speed and agility and hiding herself in the leaves.

"Get down here, rat!" Neko spat, shaking her fist up at the leaves. She growled; she had no long-distance attacks to speak of, and she hated climbing up trees, so all she could do was… wait? Stand here like an idiot? The purugly grumbled obscenities and proceeded to charge for an incredibly risky attack.

Makou, meanwhile, was violently slapping leaves over her wounds in a desperate attempt to lessen the blood flow. It had worked, slightly, and while the spurting had dwindled down to a steady trickle, the sentret was still feeling incredibly lightheaded and doubted she could –

She felt herself falling.

A scream left her mouth before she impacted harshly on the ground, her breath leaving her and a sickening crack echoing through her ears. Her ankle didn't quite feel right and every breath she took, every twitch of her muscle left her panting and gasping and clawing at consciousness.

Faint Attack, she heard Neko sneer before the world faded into nothingness.

They had arrived just in time.

"Sid, take care of the toxicroak!" Zeni yelled, rushing towards Yume who was alarmed at the group's sudden appearance. Wani had gone on ahead and fended the purugly off of the unconscious sentret, slashing his sword towards Neko as she attempted to dodge the random, unpredictable attacks from the totodile.

Sid, his rhydon teammate, nodded and swung his axe towards Doku, who jumped out of the way, looking quite surprised. The toxicroak, however, simply grunted and sent a flurry of poison spikes flying towards Sid, who easily cut them in half with his gray, battle-hardened axe, sending the spikes flying by harmlessly.

Zeni, the squirtle and Team Leader of Marine Flint, saw right through the munna's strategy, which was pretty much teleport everywhere in an attempt to confuse the opponent. Of course, that might have worked if he didn't have Rapid Spin in his arsenal.

Spinning around rapidly, he anticipated Yume's next location and jabbed her in the gut with the flat edge of his sword, sending her flying and crashing onto a tree. Grunting, Yume struggled to stand up and closed her eyes tightly, as if focusing. Zeni readied himself to dodge a possible psychic attack, but instead, she had disappeared, along with the purugly and the toxicroak.

He lowered his sword, still looking around cautiously for a sneak attack of any sort, but it seemed as if the munna had simply conducted a mass teleport. She hadn't brought the axew with her, though, which he was sure was Team Nightmare's target, so he must have weakened her more than he thought. Ah, well. All's well that ends well.

Wani had picked up the sentret in his arms, looking unsure as to what to do with her. Zeni instructed him to go over to Paradise and inform whoever might be there, while Sid went ahead and carried the axew and the rufflet along with him.

He grabbed a pen and paper from his bag and scribbled a quick note, stuffed it in Taylor's hoodie pocket, then accompanied the rhydon and the totodile to Paradise.

I have been falling unconscious for a great number of times these days and I don't think that's a good thing.

Mirai had awoken, but she hadn't opened her eyes yet. What sane pokemon would do that? She'd rather relax in bed for a little while longer until she regained her senses.

… Bed… Bed… where had she been before bed?

Mirai jolted upwards in a sitting position, her nails lengthened and sharpened in preparation for a fight, but instead, she was met with Shido's both concerned and surprised expression. "M-Mirai?"

"Shido?" She blinked, then looked around. Bookshelf, table… it was her room. She was on her bed. Okay, no immediate danger here, then…

"Mirai! You're alright?" the snivy asked, breathing a sigh of relief. "That's good! Really good. You were knocked out for a good long time, y'know? You almost missed lunch, which would have been a shame because it's some cheap pizza we ordered from that one restaurant you like–"

"Yeah yeah yeah that's good and all, but where're those Nightmare snobs?" Mirai interrupted impatiently. "They're in need of an Arceusdamn lesson from yours truly. That was such an unfair battle! I demand a rematch, dammit!"

"Calm down, Mirai," Shido said. The axew glared at him, but eased into a more relaxed position. "Zeni told me about it. I can't believe Team Nightmare just fought you guys for no real reason, though…" He gazed down at his lap, looking incredibly worried. "Hm… we have to make sure that doesn't happen again, but… Mirai, you feel fine, right?"

"I'm okay," the axew replied slowly. "I mean, my head hurts a ton, but that's about it." Her eyes widened in realization. "Taylor! Makou! W-What about them? Are they alright?! Answer me!"

The snivy looked away. "Taylor's a bit dizzy and he says his back feels sore and his wings feel flattened, but otherwise, he's alright. Makou is…" He swallowed.

"Makou is?" Mirai prompted, gritting her teeth so hard she heard the grinding.

"… She hasn't woken up yet." Shido winced. "The nurses say she's alive and she'll stay alive, but she might have those scars for a pretty long time. Her ankle's sprained too, but it's fixed now, so it might feel sore for a week or two but… she's okay, besides that."

"Ugh…" she buried her face in her hands. "Ryuuko is going to murder me. Arceus, did I…? I just wanted to get her some stupid clothes, dammit!"

"Are you blaming yourself?" Shido cried out. "Don't! It's not your fault! Things just… happened! It must have just been a coincidence or something!"

"It wasn't," Mirai choked out. "I know that much. They were looking for me. Those Nightmare goons were looking for me and Makou got hurt because of it. They said they'd been looking for me and they… held the hostage with Ryuuko." Her eyes widened once more. "Arceus. Even Ryuuko got hurt. D… Dammit! Dammit, dammit, dammit! They're not supposed to be getting hurt because of me!"

"Mirai," Shido whispered, placing a hand on her shoulder lightly. "It's okay. Maybe they got hurt, but they're alright now, see? We're all okay. So you're okay. So don't blame yourself for something that wasn't permanent."

"It's happening again," she hissed, her voice barely more than a breath. "It's happening again. They're getting hurt for my sake again."

"They? Mirai, do you… remember something?"

The axew fidgeted under his touch. "My brothers. I had brothers. They protected me from them. They died for me. And it's happening again."

Shido murmured soft reassurances to her, rubbing gentle circles on her back as the axew curled up into a fetal position and trembled. The snivy didn't know if she was crying because she was sad or because she was frustrated, but to him, that didn't particularly matter right now. He decided the best course of action was to console his first ever teammate and prioritize the present instead of the past.

She fell asleep in his arms soon after.

When Mirai woke up, Makou had been the first pokemon she saw.

"Makou?" the axew mumbled, her words slightly slurred. "You're awake… you're okay now?"

The sentret grinned. "Who said I was never okay? I'm just glad you're awake, Mirai! Shido told me about what… er, happened." She flinched. "It's okay. I wasn't hurt because of you, Mirai, but because of myself. I chose to fight, so I got hurt because of it. It's got nothing to do with you. Anyway, I have something to settle with Team Nightmare as well, so I would have inevitably gone to battle even if you had told me not to."

Mirai nodded tiredly. Everything in her memory was so muddled right now that she felt like going back to sleep, but she knew she'd just lie on the bed for an excruciatingly long amount of time wide awake. Whatever. "So you're okay."

Makou nodded cheerily. "Ryuuko says it was her own fault, too, that she got careless and didn't keep her guard up. She made herself an easy target, and she shouldn't have run away like that in the first place." The sentret shook her head. "And she says I'm reckless. Weirdo."

The axew chuckled weakly, then propped herself up to a sitting position. Stretching, she asked, "How's the land preparation going?"

Makou perked up. "It's finished! Have you seen it? It's this huuuuuge forest and it's got so many trees and stuff! And the best part is that there's a lake!"

"There's a what," Mirai deadpanned.

"A lake! I can't believe it. Forests normally don't have lakes, do they?"

"Actually–"

"But our forest has one! It's not really big, but it's big enough to jump into and play in the water and stuff! We can have a beach chapter!"

"A – wait, what?"

"Nothing. We should actually not have a beach chapter though, Ryuuko might have severe blood loss and need a transfusion if she sees the Queen in her swimsuit. Okay, Mirai, let's go see it! You haven't seen it yet, right? Check out our forest!"

Mirai sighed. She knew Makou well enough that arguing was out of the question. "Okay, fine, fine, whatever. Lead the way."

Makou was three steps away from the door when she tripped and started whining about her ankle. Mirai had to carry the sentret miltankback-style out the house.

"Mirai, you're here!" Shido exclaimed. Beside him were Satsuki, Ryuuko, Taylor, and Daichi, all with varying expressions of awe and pride. "Our Fertile Forest's done! Look, look!"

"Yeah, I can see it." The axew set Makou down, who bounded over to Ryuuko and started chattering away. In front of Mirai, the forest-like area stood. It was similar in appearance to the Pleasant Plain (without the trees framing the area) and similar in atmosphere to the Cool Creekside, coupled with the small lake. It was surprisingly neat-looking, with trees placed here and there but not enough to look haphazard, and the rocks succeeded in their purpose of looking decorative.

"Yo! How ya like it?" a voice asked from behind. Mirai turned around to reveal Akio in all his gurdurr glory, hefting his signature steel beam above his shoulder. "Normally, stuff like this takes 'round four days, but I felt nice yesterday, so I sped up the process a lil' bit. Don't think this is gonna happen all the time, though!" He guffawed.

"It's… great," Mirai said. The hesitation wasn't there because she didn't mean it, but mainly because she didn't know how a gurdurr and two timburrs had lessened the normal time of four days to one. It was a lot to take in. Was this normal for pokemon? Oh, well. Convenience, convenience. "Thanks a lot, A… Akio."

Shido smiled.

The gurdurr chuckled and slapped her back in what Mirai supposed was reassuring. "Ah, don't worry 'bout it! Well, see ya'll soon! The Queen" he winked not-very-subtly at the suicune, "already paid for it, so I'll be off, now." He waved a goodbye, completely unaware of Ryuuko's dark aura.

After that, the day goes on as normal. Shido, Makou, and Ryuuko played around like little kids in the forest area, while Satsuki relaxed by the lake. Taylor nestled himself in a tall tree and started cleaning his wings, while Daichi helped Takeshi arrange the board notes. Mirai went back to take a quick nap. Of course, that nap continued on far longer than she preferred and Shido had to kick her awake for dinner.

… Hmph!

… Gotta get away… get away get away get away…

Hey! You still with me?! Wake up, water monkey, we're almost there!

"… Nn…"

"Get back here, weasel! We'll have your head for this!"

Ugh. Annoying little…

"Don't… they're… too strong…"

Yeah, well, wasn't planning on it. Keep with me, alright? We're almost there.

"…"

… Ugh… dammit! Detour, detour!

"Where do you think you're going?!"

… Wouldn't kill them to keep their traps shut for once…

… The forest! That's right, the forest, the forest, the forest, perfect! Okay, hang in there, monkey, I got an idea!

"… Why are… Why are you trying to save me?"

Does there have to be a reason? Just keep quiet and I'll do a little magic…

"… Buizels don't have magic…"

Girl, I'm a waterbender. I got this.

Miss… Sakamoto?

"Hey, it's you again! Tell me, what the hell do you want from me?"

Miss Sakamoto! Thank goodness, can you –

"H-Huh? Can I… what?"

HELP! Help me – coming, they're – I don't – Sakamoto!

"W-What? I can't understand you!"

I'm – got to – the forest – zzzzt…

"What? Hey! Are you still there?! Hey!"

"Morning, Mirai!"

"… Nn…"

Shido cocked his head to the side, confused. He was fairly sure the axew responded a bit more violently to his cheery greetings. "Mirai? Are you okay?"

"… Dreams and stuff…" she mumbled.

"Oh, are you having nightmares?" the snivy asked softly. He knew how nightmares were; he had them all too often. "Nightmares are less scary if you tell someone. Can you tell me what they're about? Maybe it'll help your memories."

Mirai sat up on her bed, shrugging as she rubbed at her eyes. "They're not nightmares… but they're pretty weird dreams. It's like… there's this pokemon trying to talk to me in my dreams, but they get interrupted all the time and stuff. Like… static or whatever. It's like a broken connection."

"Maybe it's telepathy?" Shido suggested. "But when pokemon use telepathy, it's usually crystal clear. Hm, maybe they're too far away for the connection to work properly?"

The axew shrugged once more. "Dunno. It sounds pretty important, but… I can't understand them, so I don't know what they want at all."

Shido's expression remained blank for a bit more, before he smiled reassuringly. "Don't worry, I'm sure it's just a minor problem. Once that pokemon gets closer to your location, maybe, they should be able to talk to you fairly well! Trust me on this."

Mirai nodded slowly. "Okay… thanks, I guess."

"No problem! Now–"

"Mail! There's mail!"

The expected blur of brown flew in the room, accompanied by a tired-looking rufflet who looked like he wanted nothing to do with this. Makou propped herself up on Mirai's bed, shoving an official-looking envelope on her face. "Lookie, Mirai! It's mail! We have mail!"

"I can see that," the axew deadpanned. "Have you actually read it?"

"… Nope!" Makou grinned mareepishly. "Okay, I'm gonna read it now. Lessee…" she ripped open the envelope with her sharp nails, dug out the letter inside, then proceeded to skim over it. "… Huh. So it's an announcement from HAPPI that there's a suspicious and potentially dangerous pokemon on the loose. All townsfolk are recommended to stay in their homes until further notice, blah blah." Makou nodded. "That's about it. Nothing else of importance!"

Shido nodded. "That's understandable. Team Nightmare just arrived, after all, so they might have a super-dangerous team member with them. Mirai, stay inside as much as you can, okay? They're after you, as you said, so it'll be safer for you to stay inside than outside. As for the rest of you… go in pairs if you're going out, alright? To be safe."

"Then I'm gonna partner up with Taylor!" Makou cheered.

"What? Why me?" the rufflet cried.

"Because Ryuuko is going to take Satsuki one way or the other so I'm stuck with you."

"'Stuck'?!"

As the duo continued bickering on in the background, Mirai stared at the forgotten letter on her lap, picking it up and reading it properly and carefully. There was no mention of what the pokemon specifically looked like or what species it was, so she reluctantly put it down once more.

Was she going to have to find out herself or what?

Word Count: 4085. The updates are gradually getting slower but that's only because I want to get the beginning stuff out of the way. Oh man, I can't wait for the nighttime talk between the Dunsparce and the Virizion of this story...

Battles, battles, battles. Oh, and some emotional outbursts too because memories, man. Still platonically shipping Makou and Taylor. Still blatantly writing Ryuuko's obvious jealousy to whoever even 'touches' (Starry I know you're reading this) her Satsuki. Fun fact, I was supposed to finish this chapter up by yesterday morning (seriously I wrote, like, 3k words in the span of two hours) but then there was a 'little' conversation between Starry and I about Ryuuko/Satsuki (which I shall declare Snowshipping; their real ship name is ultra-spoilerific and if anybody sees it, then stuff is gonna do down) and I got carried away. There's a comic on my profile now, so all you need to know is the pattern of Starry-Me-Starry.

Next. Hm... yeah that's it. Don't worry, my updates aren't getting shorter it's basically just me wanting to skip to the good part already. I mean, I can already see the 50k word chapter I'm gonna write once we meet the Espeon of this story. Fufufu...

Up next: Inflora Forest, the 'suspicious pokemon' (or pokemons?), and the Crags of Lament maybe. Stay tuned.

Marei, 4/15/14

Heads-Up: I will definitely not get a chapter up on April 26. I have a cosplay convention to attend and damn if I'm not going to rock this outfit of Ryuko.